Tuesday, 31st March - Sharing

It was great to see SO many people at today's Google Hangout - we had 22 participants altogether.

One of the topics we were all interested in was the number of bears we were finding on our walks or bike rides around our neighbourhoods.  You can see photos of the bears on the Bear page.  Remember to take photos to email or upload to SeeSaw when you see them on your walk.

Here is Otis's bear photo.

Here is the tally so far:

• Kadin - 59 bears
• Sam - 115 bears
• Kadence - 99 bears
• Mrs Bear - 2 bears
• Dimitri - 50 bears
• Isabelle - 20 bears
• Wilson - 2 bears

You will be pleased to see that there are now two chrysalis and one large caterpillar on Mrs Bear's swan plants. 

YOUR NEXT HOLIDAY CHALLENGE:

You will need to be a detective to solve this crime! 

WHO or WHAT killed Ratty?

SCENE OF THE CRIME: We will now take you to the scene of the crime - Mrs Bear's driveway where his fat, sleek, healthy looking RAT was found dead.

EVIDENCE: No marks, bits, scratches or signs of fighting; no smell of poison.

PRIME SUSPECT:  Pussy - but where is the evidence?
There are no signs of attack + does this cat look like a vicious, stealthy killer?  NO, this cat likes to eat cat biscuits because they're easy to catch and relax in the sun waiting for the next meal to be wheeled in - this is not a hungry cat scrounging its next meal.

IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION OR HAVE ANY IDEAS ABOUT RATTY:
Please write a report about how Ratty died OR draw and label a picture to show how he died OR make a flow chart with numbers 1-4 or maybe 1-6 to show the steps that led up to Ratty's demise.
Send your report to Police Commissioner Bear on SeeSaw.

THE CASE WAS SOLVED BY DETECTIVE, KADIN R:
Super work, Kadin, in these difficult times.

Monday, 30th March - Sharing

Today, Room 18 had its first online class meeting.  Adam, Wallace, Lucas, Eillie, Wilson, Otis, Sam, Mia, Linsey and Nathaniel all shared some of their holiday news.

Adam had seen 36 bears on his scooter walk today.  He also showed us his colourful worm with sparkles and googly eyes and the cute little cactus he made with his Grandma.  Lucas showed us some of his Chinese books, but best of all, he showed us the praying mantis he had found.  It scampered up his arm but Lucas had also made a special house for him to stay in.  Wallace showed us some of his Chinese video games.  Eillie showed us her watermelon seedling.  Linsey showed how much she loves pink: she had pink stripes on her T-shirt, a pink chair and pink headphones.  Sam, Nathaniel, Wilson, Otis and Mia were happy to be part of our virtual classroom and enjoy listening about everyone's new this time.  It was the first of many classroom meetings - a great start!

After Adam's 36 bears, Mrs Bear kept a keen look-out on her walk.  This was her favourite Onehunga bear.

Golden Teddy tried to climb the date!

Little Ted hopped on Seagull for a ride - don't you know you have to stay safe at home, Little Ted?

Starbucks Ted went for a swing in the peg basket.

Wooden Ted went for an Autumn dip in the bird bath.

Big Ted guarded our drive way from the safety of our letter box.  I wonder how many families he will see walking past?

Sunday, 29th March - Sharing

The Optional Holiday Challenge today is about measuring length in metres and centimetres which we have been doing at school.

Can you count the eleven sunflowers in Mrs Bear's garden

1. Draw a diagram of the 11 sunflowers. 
2. Estimate the height of each sunflower.
3. Write the height in centimetres (cm) OR in metres and fractions of a metre (m) - this can be in a chart OR a numbered list under your diagram.
4. If you look carefully, you can see a metre ruler next to the first sunflower - this tells you how high 1 metre (or 100 cm) looks like next to these flowers.  This will help you work out your estimates.
5. When you have finished, take a photo of your work and upload it to SeeSaw.
6. You have four days to do this challenge - on Thursday, Mr and Mrs Bear will measure all the sunflowers and publish the answers on the class blog.

The sunflowers are starting to open up their petals and you can see small seeds growing.  Mrs Bear will collect the sunflower seeds when they mature and we will toast them when we are back at school.

I think this recipe will be good for us because we already know how to make buttermilk.  

The recipe says you can add toasted sunflower seeds to make it more crunchy - we will have enough to do that.
In the meantime, if you decide to make a loaf of soda bread at home with Mum or Dad, please send a photo so we can put it on the class blog.  It looks like it is quite an easy recipe, if you have all the ingredients.

Eillie attempted the Washing Basket and Sock Challenge.
You did a terrific job, Eillie.

While Charlotte tucked into this fabulous lunch . . .

. . . and looked after this strange visitor (doesn't he know we are in lockdown?!)

When we are back at school, we'll read this book - maybe it really is about Charlotte and her special visitor.

Apart from that, Mr and Mrs Bear have just been hanging out on the deck.

Saturday, 28th March - Sharing

It is great to see that lots of people have signed up to have EPIC free at home (until the end of June).  We now have 14 people signed up.  There is a huge digital library of books, comics, audio books,  and videos which is great to use in term time AND in the holidays.  Together as a class, we have already read 250 books!

Sadly, Chocolate, Snowflake, Diamond, Katie and Teddy are isolating in Room 18 at Cockle Bay (or maybe, they are hibernating).  Meanwhile, Mrs Bear has been hiding her other bears in her garden for people to see when they go for a walk.  How many bears have you seen on your walks?

Friday, 27th March - Sharing

You just can't have a Friday without the CBS News!  This was also uploaded onto the CBS FB page:
CBS News for Friday, 27th March

We also wanted to share some of the things we have been doing at home:

Liam settled down to a delicious lunch at home.

Nathaniel had a break from playing to make an awesome sandwich.

Mrs Bear hung out with Charlie.

Mr Dyer laid down a challenge.

Mrs Bear and Charlie picked up the challenge.

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN!

HAVE A GO AT THE WASHING BASKET CHALLENGE AT HOME. THEN EMAIL YOUR VIDEO TO MRS BEAR IF YOU WOULD LIKE IT UPLOADED ONTO OUR CLASS BLOG!

Distance Learning - Sharing

The Weka teachers are having regular on-line meetings using Google Hangouts (it might work for your family too - very user friendly - https://hangouts.google.com/ - you need to set a time in advance, one person sets up meeting and sends out invites, and then all go online at specified time and join the meeting by selecting video and speech icons).

All the Wekas now have access to, and are starting to use, SeeSaw.  Students can do complete tasks and upload them on to Seesaw.  I then read, comment on and approve them so they go into their individual journals.

After talking to other Weka teachers, it has been decided that children's work in their journals should be private so only they can see it while we are doing Distance Learning.  This will stop any comparisons between standards of work which some people might be uncomfortable with.  I have changed SeeSaw settings this morning to allow for this - you will need to log in again with your student code after this update.

I will be asking parents to give permission for photos of their homes to go on our class blog.  I anticipate sharing photos of activities such as baking, making things out of lego or craft junk around home, pets andart work but not actual school work that has been set.  I think this will be good way to share our day's activities, it is a creative outlet and a healthy way to keep connected.  In line with this thinking, I have deleted some of the photos on yesterday sharing posts.

Kind regards,
Mrs Bear

Thursday, 26th March - Sharing

By Thursday, more people were starting to use SeeSaw.  They would like to share their work and ideas.

Great dancing with your mystery guest, Eillie!

It was nice to see Linsey on the blog, all the way away in China.

Nathaniel made an awesome Lego castle and then wrote a story about it.

Eillie's Dot Day art.

Oliver's Dot Day art.

Wallace's Dot Day art.

Mia is the Lorax who wants to look after the trees and our environment.

Wallace is the Lorax and wants to look after plastics responsibly.

Charlotte shared a labelled photo of her pet cat, Pepper.

Mrs Bear made green tomato chutney using unripe tomatoes from her vegie garden.

Wednesday, 25th March - Sharing

We will have SeeSaw up and running soon, but in the meantime, please email photos of your learning to Mrs Bear on bridget@cocklebay.school.nz so she can update our blog.  It will be an awesome way to share what we have been doing at home.  You, or your parents, can also make comments at the end of each post, if you wish.

Mrs Bear has spent time today getting our blog up to date so we can enjoy all the cool things we have done at school so far - now you will have time to read these and share them with your family.  It will be interesting to share our new home learning and keep in touch with each other on the blog.

Adam made this cool house and wrote about it.

Mrs Bear has been looking after the Monarch caterpillars in her garden and making sure that they have enough to eat.

Important Update

New Zealand is now officially on COVID-19 Alert Level 4, which means we will be learning at home for the next few weeks (not forgetting Easter holidays).  Please check our class blog for updates but, more importantly, for sharing our learning and our experiences. 

Making mint tea

Our classroom garden has huge amounts of min and it was time to prune the mint so we could make mint tea.  First, we made a sugar syrup to sweeten the tea by dissolving white sugar in hot water.  We used the 1:1 ratio to work out how much sugar we needed to make 3 cups. 

Then we pruned our mint patch.

After that, we brought branches of mint inside, and plucked off the young fresh leaves.  Our hands and even the carpet smelt minty!

Next we filled our teapot with fresh leaves and added the sugar syrup.  Then we filled the teapot with boiling water.  The steam, again, was fresh and minty.  

Finally, it was time to give the mint tea the taste test!  Most people really liked it.